Chapter 5

Hunt for the Chaos Emeralds

Examining the dropped Portal Gear acquired from the giant mechanical tower, Sonic found himself suddenly transported to a giant chemical plant. The plant itself was truly massive, consisting of blue and light grey buildings, many of which had chimneys letting out massive quantities of smoke. There were also dark blue shipping containers for holding and transporting various chemical components alongside mechanised and automated cranes observed by various orange rotund robots with domed heads, cyan eyes, sharp yellow noses, wide glowing mouths and black torsos which also had narrow dark grey fingers. Above both Sonic and the industrial complex was a sinister crimson sky. Steeling himself, Sonic said, "Well, can't back down now.".

Running forward through the plant, Sonic spied a surveillance camera (several of them in fact) outside the corner of his eye. Strangely, the cameras' gaze was not trained on Sonic; capitalising on this, he ran even faster, jumping to avoid several of the robot workers. Upon noticing him, the robots transformed their hands into cannons, firing several dark purple lasers that Sonic effortlessly dodged. "Kill that horrid hedgehog!", a harsh voice screamed over the comms system. "See if I care, Eggman!", Sonic arrogantly shot back. Coming across a reservoir of pink acid, Sonic then jumped into air and jerked himself across the distance, sliding down the outside curvature before getting back to running across the twisting and turning metal paths without so much as missing a beat.

Reaching a rarely visited section of the chemical plant, Sonic found himself in a very dusty computer room. There, he came across a green crocodile wearing a pair of headphones, a purple chameleon holding a kunai and black and yellow striped bee wearing a flight vest and a helmet. "Never thought I'd find you here, Vector.", Sonic said to the crocodile. "Oh, hi Sonic. You made me jump.", Vector replied. "Why are you here, Sonic? Come to find the computer room like us?", the chameleon asked. "Nah, Espio. I'm here to find one of the Chaos Emeralds; we need all seven to safely undo the forced fusion YHVH's imposed on Cyber Space; it's starting to seriously break apart and destabilise.", Sonic said to the chameleon. "Shame. Still though, we're trying to decode this ancient message left behind by these Ancients who were around even before Knuckles' time; we've managed to narrow down the next emerald, the yellow one to Sandopolis Zone on Angel Island, but right now it would be in Mahag Saar alongside Gerudo Desert, the Hissing Wastes, the Western Approach and Ares Island.", the bee said. "Thanks, Charmy. I'll tell my friends at Garreg Mach that.", Sonic said to the bee before continuing on.

Approaching a very deep part of the chemical plant, Sonic saw the unmistakable glow of the purple Chaos Emerald connected to the "heart" of the plant. "Ooh yeah. Come to papa.", Sonic said, walking up to the emerald. Suddenly, a hedgehog-shaped robot came down from the ceiling, having lied in wait for the blue hedgehog. The robot's construction was largely composed of blue metal, alongside a yellow depression in what would be its "stomach", blue metal fins as if to mirror Sonic's azure quills, a pair of triangular "ears", a silvery-white muzzle bolted on by two screws, silver shoulder plates, silver narrow pipes for legs and arms and silver claws for fingers. It also had red metal feet with white stripes to mirror Sonic's shoes. Its red eyes suddenly flickered to life. "Metal?!", Sonic exclaimed in disbelief. "Long time no see, my loathsome copy.", Metal replied. "I shoulda known you were protecting the purple Chaos Emerald. Well, I need it to help my friends break out of this digital prison, so stand aside and let me take it.", Sonic aggressively said. The two then rushed at each other, ready to fight.

As Sonic and his robot doppelganger fought over the purple Chaos Emerald, Vector, Espio and Charmy met with a yellow two-tailed fox with a tuft of fur on his chest, a red echidna with red dreadlocks and a white stripe on his chest and a pink hedgehog wearing a red dress and carrying a red and yellow hammer. "Nice to see you again.", Vector said to the three. "Well, we couldn't have made it back into Cyber Space had YHVH not invaded.", the pink hedgehog said. Hearing a loud explosion, the six rushed off to find Sonic taking a metric crap ton of punishment from Metal, heavily bleeding from where the robotic hedgehog had stabbed him in the abdomen. "Sonic!", the two-tailed fox yelled. Diverting his attention from his loathsome robotic copy to the six, Sonic yelped out, "Tails?! B-But I thought you had gone off on your own adventures without me! What brought you back?!". "Don't worry about that, Sonic. Just focus on the task at hand.", Espio said. Sonic did just that, just managing to block one of Metal's attacks and expertly parry it, responding in turn by unleashing a veritable tornado of punishment. Undeterred by this, Metal charged up, drawing in 1,000,000 megavolts of electricity, forming a gigantic sphere of golden lightning around him. "That don't look good.", the red echidna observed. "You think, Knuckles?", Sonic said to the echidna. All of a sudden, the purple emerald then broke free of its containment unit and flowed to Sonic, healing his wounds and suddenly boosting his power. Covered by a magenta aura, Sonic then unleashed a giant punch right as Metal unleashed his punch in turn. Colliding, the two punches created a giant explosion, totalling Metal.

As the dust cleared, the seven found themselves in the familiar halls of Garreg Mach Monastery. Noticing his return, Lapis eagerly rushed to him. "Sonic!", she shouted in a voice of genuine concern. "Who's this chick?", the pink hedgehog asked. "Well, Amy, this is Lapis. She's from Brodia.", Sonic responded to the pink hedgehog. "Wait, are you holding a mechanical greatsword that I designed based off what I saw from Chaos Island?", the two-tailed fox asked. "I…guess so. By the way, who are you again?", Lapis replied. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails.", the two-tailed fox said.

Meanwhile as Sonic introduced Lapis to Vector, Charmy, Espio, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, Clive found himself wandering a sandy desert. As he approached a giant stone pillar, he noticed a pair of four fighting against a strange monster formed from a black and dark red sludge with a giant yellow eye. The quartet specifically consisted of a person composed entirely of stone with blue eyes holding a ridiculously oversized greatsword (yes, even larger than Lanz's greatsword); a bird with dark blue feathers and green eyes and a yellow beak wielding a bow; a dark-skinned woman with red hair and green eyes wielding a magnificent gilded scimitar and a jewelled shield; and a red and grey skinned fish girl with yellow eyes wielding a beautiful white trident. Clive candidly approached the four, only four the monster they were fighting to change targets to him instead. Drawing his sword, Clive took a stance ready to roast the beast to Kingdom Come. The monster rushed at him, Clive retaliating its attack by unleashing a burst of flame. "Well I'll be!", the stone person said. "Oh come on, Daruk. You mean to tell me that just because someone was able to easily destroy a being made of Malice he's automatically got your approval?", the bird said to the stone man. "Well, yeah, Revali.", Daruk replied to the bird. "How asinine.", Revali said. "Getting back on topic, we really need to find the yellow Chaos Emerald before Ganon does and uses it to destroy Hyrule.", the dark skinned woman said. "Come on, Urbosa. Any help is welcome.", the fish girl said. "Yeah, Mipha, but we don't know this man's name.", Revali observed to the fish girl. Deciding to introduce himself, Clive said, "Uh, hi. My name's Clive Rosfield.". "Nice to meetcha, Clive. My name's Daruk, a Champion of the Kingdom of Hyrule. Anyway, the bird's Revali of the Rito, the fish girl's Mipha of the Zora and the other woman is Urbosa of the Gerudo. As for me, I'm a Goron.", Daruk replied. "Anyway, why are you here?", Revali asked. "Well I'm here to find the yellow Chaos Emerald to break out of this digital world. King Byleth and Queen Rhea did have a hunch it was here in Mahag Saar, but not specifically where.", Clive responded. Suddenly, the five found themselves in an ancient temple with the yellow Chaos Emerald right there on a pedestal. Guarding it was a demonic knight holding an equally Hellish halberd. Fighting the knight were three women- one of them had short purple hair and eyes wearing a purple dress holding a katana; another was a girl with long raven hair tied into twintails and crimson eyes wearing a blue half shirt and a blue miniskirt holding a rapier; and the last was a woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a long green dress holding a spear. Turning her attention briefly to lock eyes with Revali, the purple-haired girl said, "Oh, Revali!" with a cute and bubbly voice. "Hi there, Neptune.", Revali said to the purple-haired girl. "Focus, Neptune! Or do you want to be trapped in this Cyber Space forever?", the raven-haired girl asked with a very stroppy and aggressive voice. "Sorry, Noire.", Neptune said to the raven-haired girl, slicing apart the demonic knight with her katana, only for the being's injury to heal. "Tenacious little bugger, aren't you?", the blonde-haired woman asked. "He certainly is, Vert.", Neptune said to the blonde-haired woman.

Feeling a rush of adrenaline, Clive rushed forward, locking blades with the demon knight, then unleashing a burst of razor sharp wind that broke apart the halberd like it wasn't even funny. Clive then unleashed another elemental burst, forming a second blade of lightning in his left hand whilst coating his regular sword in Hellfire, slashing all the way at the knight's armour. Launching it into the air with an earthen fist of energy, Clive then pursued into the air with a fiery phoenix wing before forming a pair of dark claws which he used to rip apart the knight's armour, then unleashing a barrage of icy slashes with an equally icy rapier before blasting the being into oblivion with a lance of light. "Dayum.", Neptune said, impressed. Touching the yellow emerald, the eight then found themselves at the familiar sight of Garreg Mach once again. This time, Blanc was there to greet them. "Oh, Clive, you're completely unharmed.", she said. "More or less.", Clive said, placing his sword on his back. Giving the yellow emerald to Blanc, Noire said, "Two down, five to go.".

Whilst Sonic and Clive were doing explorations of their own, Alphen and Rinwell then decided to find the cyan emerald, having tracked it down to Elde Menancia. The two ran across the grassy plains, dodging undead skeletons all the while. Reaching the realm's capital of Viscint, the two barged inside only to find the city completely deserted. "Weird. Shionne, Law, Kisara and Dohalim said they'd found the cyan emerald in Autelina Palace. Wonder why the city's deserted.", Alphen said, noticing the eerie silence. Meanwhile in an opulent palace, Cloud turned to a woman with pink hair in a ponytail and blue eyes wearing a black and dark pink dress. "So, Shionne, let me see if I understand this correctly. You lost contact with your husband Alphen almost immediately when you entered Cyber Space. Only you ended up here in Menancia while Alphen washed up in Colony 4 in Mahag Saar, right?", he asked. "That's right. At least I heard he was in Mahag Saar last when I spoke with him. Now I don't know where he is.", Shionne replied. Tifa turned to a blonde woman with amber eyes wearing a white suit of armour with the back exposed. "Don't worry, Kisara. We'll find the Chaos Emeralds soon and break out of this Cyber Space.", Tifa said to the blonde-haired woman. "Let's just focus on finding the cyan one first.", Kisara replied. Walking to the balcony, Cloud turned to a black man with short black hair in a hi-top fade and brown eyes with a gun for his right arm wearing a dirty brown vest, green trousers and brown boots. "How's our host, Barret?", Cloud asked the man. "Well, Cloud, he couldn't be any happier. After all, we've just managed to pinpoint the location of the cyan emerald and locked it down to the Tietal Plain just outside this city.", Barret replied. Turning to a young woman with long silver hair and burning red eyes wearing a purple minidress with an opening to expose her back and a red flower ornament in her hair to the right, Cloud asked the woman, "You OK, Kasane?". Turning to face him, Kasane replied, "Uh, yeah. I'm OK.". The two were suddenly interrupted by a young man with spiky black hair with pink streaks and blue eyes wearing a light purple martial arts gi. "Cloud, our host Dohalim's looking for you.", the young man said. "Got it, Law.", Cloud said to the young man.

Entering a very expensively furnished and redecorated office, Cloud caught sight of a man with dark skin and curly dark red hair and brown eyes wearing a flamboyant blue and gold tunic. "You were looking for me, Dohalim?", Cloud asked the man. "Ah yes, I am, Cloud. As you know, we have located the location of the cyan Chaos Emerald somewhere here in the Tietal Plains outside this city. I'm planning on sending a search party to locate the Emerald and bringing it back here to Viscint to be safeguarded before we can bring it to Garreg Mach. Of course, given how unstable Cyber Space has become, I wouldn't be surprised if it warped us there upon acquiring the emerald anyway.", Dohalim replied. Suddenly an earthquake sounded with Cloud and Dohalim rushing out of the palace to assess the damage with Shionne, Law, Kisara, Tifa, Barret and Kasane in tow. And it was a good thing too, since the earthquake had revealed a giant crater in the middle of Viscint, out of which a giant mechanical knight holding a dark green energy spear rose. Meanwhile, Shionne glimpsed far into the distance, noticing Alphen and Rinwell; in turn Alphen noticed Shionne. The two ran to each other, holding themselves in a tender embrace. "Uh, maybe save the lovey-dovey until after the threat is gone.", Law said.

As the mechanical monstrosity attacked, Dohalim deftly evaded its blows, responding with a quick and sure strike with his staff. Law in turn rushed up the knight's spear, grinding down the shaft of the weapon before jumping up and slugging the giant mech in the face. Undeterred, the knight unleashed a crimson streak of energy that Kisara effortlessly blocked with a giant tower shield, with Shionne following up with a shot of blue energy from her rifle. Not wanting to be left out, Alphen ran up the giant knight's mechanical leg, slashing away at the crimson and azure crystals the mech spawned to deter people from ascending. Rinwell pitched in as well, unleashing a shot of ice from her tome. The icicle burrowed its way into the knight, freezing its metal armour and clogging up its systems; with this, Alphen grabbed his flaming sword and lopped off the knight's head before using the sword to burn away the knight's armour with a series of powerful slashes, revealing the cyan emerald within. The knight then exploded, its power source removed.

As Alphen reached out for the cyan emerald, the group of ten was then teleported to (you guessed it) Garreg Mach Monastery. This time, however, they were greeted by Byleth and Rhea. "Your Majesties. We have acquired the cyan emerald. We now have 3 emeralds, the white, blue, red and green emeralds still unaccounted for.", Alphen said, bowing. "You have done well indeed, Alphen.", Byleth said, taking the emerald from Alphen's grasp. Sonic and Micaiah watched them from inside the monastery. "That reminds me, where is the white emerald?", Law asked. "We believe it to be in Cyslodia, specifically IceCap. Ragna, Ethel and Blackwall have already gone to retrieve it.", Rhea replied. "But wait, isn't Cyslodia extremely unstable in this digital realm?", Kisara asked. "Don't worry. Ragna's Azure Grimoire will no doubt protect them from the distortions. Even if they run into various anomalies, I have a feeling in my Core Crystal that they'll succeed.", Sena replied.

The story continues in the next chapter.